As debut novels go they don’t come much more ambitious than Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Justice, a complex, politically-themed science fiction epic. Heavily reminiscent of Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels, from the huge scale of its setting to the use of powerful ship-based artificial intelligences, it nonetheless feels fresh and characterful, distinct enough to stand proudly within the space opera genre. The story follows Breq, an ancillary – a ship’s once-human avatar – previously one of many, but now separate and alone. We meet her nineteen years into a mission that she is pursuing with single-minded determination, and which might be finally drawing to a close.
